"We could have made only one belief, but for each peoples we have appointed different
laws and rites, so instead; compete in good works and argue kindly;
for there is no compulsion in religion." Qur'an 2:256, 5:48, 22:37, 29:46

Were it not for the fact that Islamic religious authorities generally take
a dim view of "bid'ah" -- baseless religious innovation -- I'd be tempted to advocate
that "laughing with tears in one's eyes" be incorporated into the rituals
of my faith.

When my Pakistani friend's 70-year-old mother comes
to visit him here in the States, the "Department of Fatherland Absurdities" subjects
her to intense and demeaning scrutiny (i.e., harassment) because of her religion,
her "traditional" mode of dress, her country of origin and her skin color.
My Iraqi brother-in-law's relatives have fared even worse. I've been subject
to such "profiling" myself, and I'm a U.S. citizen by birth.

And
yet on June 10 these same officious, bullying cretins admitted into this country
Gregory Des- pres -- a "white" Canadian-American murderer toting a bloody chain
saw!

To be fair, they did confiscate his sword, hatchet, knives
and brass knuckles before allowing him to enter. If only Gregory had thought to
wear a turban.

I'm reminded of an anonymous Navajo tribesman's comment
regarding the hysterical screams of "Close the borders!" that emanated following
the 1995 Murrah Federal Building attack, because of the initial (and unfounded)
assumption that Muslim immigrants were behind it: "All talk of immigration
reform is 500 years too late."

'Collateral damage' civilians hit by U.S. were victims of terrorism 6/10/'05

Words have power. Ironically (but predictably), the words with the most power
in our increasingly illiterate society are those that are bandied about without
regard to their actual meanings -- "buzzwords."

"Terrorism" is
a prime example, the definition of which follows: "The deliberate targeting of
non-combatants for the specific purpose of demoralizing an enemy."

Although
American and Zionist propagandists reserve this word exclusively for Islamist
or Arabist "insurgents," the above definition applies as much to their
own nations' actions as to those they denounce.

To deliberately employ
modes of warfare that, by their very nature, do not differentiate between combatants
and noncombatants is to deliberately target civilians -- this, by definition,
is terrorism. Calling its victims "collateral damage" when perpetrated
by Americans doesn't make it any less so.

Examples: the U.S. military's
deliberate slaughter of a million Filipinos -- mostly civilians -- between
1900 and 1903, the deliberate incineration of thousands of German civilians in
the Dresden firebombing, the deliberate nuclear immolation of Hiroshima's and
Nagasaki's civilian populations, the deliberate (and cowardly) deployment of chemical
weapons of mass destruction against millions of Vietnamese civilians, the
deliberate bombardment of Beirut that slaughtered 17,500 civilians -- nearly
six times the number slain on 9/11 -- and the deliberate bombing of inhabited
communities in Iraq and Afghanistan, with such horrendous loss of life the killers
refuse to count their victims.

-- Al-Hajji Frederick H. Minshall

4-6-'05 Media's characterization of Islam both prejudiced and inaccurate

Authentic Sharia law recognized women's right
to work and to own and inherit property centuries before the "Christian" nations
had decided whether or not women had souls. Sharia recognized religious minorities'
rights to observe their own laws and tenets in the first Islamic constitution
promulgated by the prophet Muhammad himself (God's peace and blessings
be on him and his family).

The Mujahideen, which the article dismisses
as "clerics," are actually jurists -- Islamic law judges. They are as qualified
to give legal pronouncements as any American "secular" judge. This means
they may rightfully strike down elected legislators' laws deemed contrary to their
nation's constitution, without themselves having been elected. Last I checked,
American Supreme Court and superior court justices weren't elected either.

The article itself acknowledges Iraq should not be compelled to accept
"American notion(s) of separation of church and state." Saddam already tried
that.

If occupation constitutes "democracy" for Iraq, then Iraqis
have the right to adopt Sharia laws if they so choose. Their recent election indicates
they have so chosen.

The Bush/Cheney Republican Guard probably
doesn't like that choice. How many more Iraqis will they murder to force another
"choice"?

-- Al-Hajji Frederick H. Minshall

2-18-'05 American imperialists threaten Iran because of Iraq; election results

I've noted with some alarm that the New American Century criminal cartel has
substantially increased its bellicose threats against the Islamic Republic of
Iran over the last couple of weeks (even more than has been characteristic). After
brief consideration, I think I know the reason:

Iraqi election
results so far heavily favor those parties closest to the Mujahideen -- the leading
Islamic jurists such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani -- the only group
that can legitimately claim to represent the aspirations of the Iraqi majority.
They are also regarded by the U.S. imperialists as having ties to Iran. In reality,
these ties are nowhere near what the imperialists claim (just as ties between
the Baathists and al-Qaida proved to be nonexistent, as anyone with even passing
knowledge of the region already knew).

Nonetheless, the election
in Iraq is not going as the Bush/Cheney Republican Guard would like. An alleged
Irani "threat" will almost certainly be used as an excuse to overthrow it,
after the fashion of the U.S.-monitored "free" elections when the French departed
Vietnam.

So much for "democracy."

-- Al-Hajji Frederick
H. Minshall

1-2-'05 Americans may forget their victims, but those families haven't forgotten

Although it's not my usual habit to answer others' letters, for the sake of
clarification for Brian Erdrich ("No disrespect intended toward U.S. Marine corpsmen;
let's not judge," Dec. 21) I'll mention that my rating was Hospitalman
8404 ("battlefield medic") designation -- what in my day was commonly referred
to as "grunt corpsman."

My point was -- and is -- that right and wrong
are not one thing for Americans and another for Iraqis. The more we accept
the imposition of such false double standards by the "New American Century" criminal
consortium, the more we ensure a future of atrocity, injustice and death
for our sons and daughters -- in both America and Iraq.

Near the end
of my enlistment, the Reagan administration bombarded Beirut as the final act
of its participation in the failed U.S./Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon --
and slaughtered 17,500 civilians in the process, nearly six times the number
killed on 9/11.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, a recent tape from Osama
bin Laden indicates the Beirut bombardment gave him the idea for the World
Trade Center attack. Had we taken the moral position of "We will never forget"
in response to the U.S.-Israeli-sponsored atrocities in Beirut, Sabra, Shatila
and elsewhere, we might not have had to do so in response to the atrocity in New
York.

But Americans tend to forget their own victims. Rest assured,
said victims' survivors haven't forgotten.

-- Al-Hajji Frederick
H. Minshall

12-1-'04 Marine who shot unarmed Iraqi no different than murderous terrorists

I served as a Navy hospital corpsman with the U.S. Marines from 1975 through
1981. I was proud of that service, until recently. That was no Marine I saw in
television news footage taken inside the Masjid in Fallujah. It was a heartless,
amoral, cowardly cyborg who murdered a helpless old man in cold blood -- in
a house of God.

He's no different than the al-Qaida wretches who kidnap
and behead their victims. Neither is his criminal "commander in chief."

--
Al-Hajji Frederick H. Minshall

10-15-'04 Twain said it best: U.S. should change flag to skull and crossbones

There are parallels between Iraq and Vietnam, but even greater parallels between
Iraq and the Spanish-American War -- particularly its Filipino campaigns.

Then, as now, false pretense was used as "justification" -- the USS
Maine was not sunk by Spanish saboteurs in Havana harbor, and there were no "WMDs"
in Iraq. America's misleaders lied then, and they're lying now.

Then,
as now, the real motive was financial gain for America's super-rich: sugar
profit was impetus for the Filipino war, oil profit drove us into Iraq.

Then,
as now, the victims of American "liberation" were primarily Muslim
-- and the insane "rationalizations" used to support both atrocities are strikingly
similar:

"It may be necessary to kill half of the Filipinos
in order that the remaining half of the population may be advanced to a higher
plane of life than their present semi-barbarous state affords," said Gen. M.
Shefter.

U.S. forces slaughtered a million Filipinos between 1900 and
1903 for this "noble" goal. How many Iraqis will America slaughter to impose
"Western-style democracy" on the survivors?

Regarding the former conflict,
perhaps Mark Twain said it best:

"The United States should
change its flag from the Stars and Stripes to the Skull and Crossbones."

--
Al-Hajji Frederick H. Minshall

9-5-'04 Al-Sadr's opposition to oppression has a firm basis in common sense

The American press so frequently refers to al-Syed Muqtada al-Sadr as "the
radical Shiite cleric" that one would think that's his official title. I submit
for your readers' consideration that his motives for resisting the American occupation
have nothing whatsoever to do with "radicalism."

Imam al-Sadr
endured decades of terror under a regime the United States previously supported.
That regime shot to death his father and two brothers, tortured to death
his aunt, and either shot to death or tortured to death another 46 of his relatives.
For him to adamantly oppose imposition of yet another U.S.-sponsored regime
isn't "radical" -- it's common sense.

Imam al-Sadr is the Iraqi
Braveheart. Saddam al-Tikriti and Iyad Alawi are Mornay and Lochland. George Bush
is Edward Longshanks and we are the English.

The increasing number of Jews such as Jonathan Sacks is creating a shocking
embarrassment for "modern" Muslims. Where are the Mulsims of equivalent status
ruining their Islamic reputations by speaking out in a similar manner against
our war crimes - close to nowhere. The Holy Land should be a place that is led
not ruled. No force, Muslim or Jew or Christian, will ever more than temporarily
rule there. But only sincere cries for justice like Rabbi Sacks's can bring peace
to our Holy Land - just as soon as Abraham's other two kin begin to follow
suit at a similar intensity and sincerity.
Shakur-abdel-Haleem
Anchorage,
Alaska, USA

Most recent submission 7-25-'05 deemed "not for publication" according to letters
clerk

Is It Ostrich Islam?

I've got two links to extremists who like to blow up children; I'm muslim and
Irish. More fellow Alaskans than ever fear, "where does he live?" Plenty of
"humanitarians" might criticize. These "humanitarians" should be criticizing us.

Why?

Really now, why should anyone believe all this two-faced
lip service peace-talk -- no one has any doubt if islamisists hate-talk
is for real now do they.

Let the Irish explain. Around
March, 1993, Susan McHugh heard about the shopping mall bombings of two children.
She also claimed to be an Irish against their extremists -- but she organized
an Irish protest vigil for Easter -- 20,000 showed, 100,000 Irish signed and
delivered condolence books along with thousands of floral bouquets. Yet
responding to the London savagery, all Cat Yusuf Islam Stevens did was call for
the authorities to find the " . . . guilty parties . . . we all want to know who
they are." B.S! His lack of a believable outrage makes him
a cheerleader. This is the real question, just who are the cheerleaders;
the ones behind backs and forked tongues. Anchorage now has it's very own
Salafi/Wahabi Mosque, Ar-Rashid; the theology of al-Qaida. Nothing believable
has happened – all across America even; I am deeply deeply ashamed. Is accurately
“aimed” tough-love from non-muslims the only thing now that can save this shameful
"Ostrich" islam?

5-29-'05 Muslims will keep falling into hate, violence until world understands

This Muslim would like to pose question No. 1. Which of the three groups described
below are the real desecraters of the Quran; the first, second or third?

In the first group, if taken as true, two or three Americans desecrate
some paper labeled as the Quran.

In group two, in response to
only a mere rumor, hundreds of Muslims, who more than 30 times each day chant,
"In the Name of God, Most Gracious and Most Merciful," desecrate living human
beings.

In group three, in response to hundreds of Muslims desecrating
living human beings, in response to just rumors about two or three Americans,
millions of Muslims demonstrate to the whole world essentially no outrage whatsoever
to group two.

Until a healthy majority of non-Muslims have
personally experienced what they feel is genuine outrage from the world's Muslims,
the answer to question one will remain shamefully obvious to any child --
and the world's Muslims will continue their increasingly rapid collapsing descent
into those dark eternal dungeons of pure hate and violence.

-- shakur-abdel-Haleem

3-21-'05 Americans must embrace diversity, not bad-mouth the 'other guy'

This American-born 1997 convert to Islam now has two highly questionable futures
to worry over. A growing global anti-Americanism outside our borders has
now begun to divide Americans inside our borders. These rabid attitudes, from both
the right and left, seem the real enemy dooming us to be just another of history's
blindly arrogant fallen empires.

Rose Wilder Lane is the daughter
of "Little House on the Prairie" author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her book,
"The Discovery of Freedom," is a must- read for those who worry about the liberty
of their great-great-great-grandchildren, to diversely pursue happiness. Why?
She shows that what went wrong with Islam is now what's going wrong with America.
Abandon that very unique foundation of both our civilizations, that morally
governed optimism and unified diversity, the cornerstone of our greatness, and
its absence will destroy us.

Bad-mouthing the "other guy" can never
reverse the terminal corruption plaguing our courts, legislatures, corporations
and, oops, forgot -- us, me and you. Homo sapiens, the tool-maker, has finally
evolved his "tools" to the last crossroad, where technically, anyone can now
destroy everyone. Even checks and balances can no longer prevent this coming
enslavement to those powers we now increasingly empower to protect us from each
other. Somehow, we must begin to learn to trust those who see differently -- or
else.

This devout Alaska Muslim will be deeply disappointed if Philip Munger's cantata
to Rachel Corrie is performed in Israel by Jewish "peace-nicks" ("Flashpoint
cantata," April 25). Worse yet, what if it's taken instead to represent Alaska's
solution to how one might make the Holy Land finally become holy?

One
movement celebrates the interview of one lone sadistic Israeli bulldozer
operator. Isn't it profound -- such an interview is revealed by an Israeli newspaper,
no less?

For me, this "memorial" is instead a betrayal. It
is a betrayal of Rachel's youthful idealism. It is a betrayal of the emergence
of a more peaceful dialogue, the only hope for transforming this now unholy land
into the Land Promised: "a place of prayer (by and) for all nations ...; a
light unto the world!"

But Rabbi Greenberg was no better; I was there.
I sensed a delight in his eyes; how this media-savvy guru had so taken advantage
of the public relations naivete of Philip Munger. Both sides beautifully
exemplified what happens when perceptions are limited only to discovering darkness
-- in the other side.

Darkness can never overcome darkness; but
only light can overcome darkness -- "(and yet) the darkness comprehendeth it not!"

-- shakur-abdel-Haleem

11-26-'03 U.S. Muslims must dig deeper this Eid to help a special cause

By now, most U.S. Muslims made their annual Eid charitable donations to celebrate
their Ramadan fast, followed by the communal Eid Prayer, one of their most
important of the Islamic year. This Eid they need to dig a little deeper into
their pockets for a special cause, because this 1,424th Eid has been sacrilegiously
soiled by the Salafi-Islamist al-Qaida network's blasphemous murders of
fellow human beings. They had just gathered together for the Sabbath at their local
Turkish synagogue to worship and follow the will of the creator. These Salafis
warn they intend to terrorize even more synagogues and other innocent targets.

The typical "canned" Muslim response always following is becoming
increasingly legitimate for the non-Muslim world to seriously question. Are
these just empty and impotent lip-service condemnations of terrorism fast peddled
out of one Muslim leader or another like so many copies from a photocopy machine?

Not one Jewish penny should be expended for the restoration
of the Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, until there
becomes zero tolerance for the increasingly rabid hate within the modern masjid
(mosque), and a genuine reaction to these horrid crimes against humanity by our
co-religionists; modern-day Islam will continue its cataclysmic fall deeper and
deeper into that dark and eternal dungeon of hate and violence.

--
shakur-abdel-Haleem

11-4-'02 Author's devotion to her mother is a beautiful example of light

Top-selling Alaska author Velma Wallis, with hundreds of thousands in royalties,
chooses to live in a modest apartment in order to be close to her mother
and children's school (''Sales of 'Two Old Women' break million-copy mark,'' Oct.
30).

One of our better-selling American Muslim authors, Yahiya Emerick,
''The Complete Idiot's Guide To Understanding Islam,'' wrote the following:
''The light of Islam has been put out in the Muslim world and has been reborn
in the heart of the secular faithless West. (Allah is truly great!)''

One
of the most famous sayings of the prophet Mohammed elevated motherhood
and love for family above even paradise itself, implying it may even be a substance
of paradise: ''We build paradise from beneath the feet of your mothers.''

Velma Wallis' choices have created one beautiful example of the
light of G-d, an example that brightly illuminates that one path of love, the only
kind that can increase all of our hopes for one day emerging from this deep
darkness that currently overwhelms our troubled times.

-- Shakur-abdel-Haleem

5-26-'02 Historic Judaism will save Israel from Zionism

For 10 years I studied Judaism, including Hebrew; so I agree when Rabbi Garmaize
writes: ''God's history proves that God is a god of justice, love and peace''
(''Muslims, like empires before, cause injustice against Jews, will fall''
May 17).

But Qur'an acknowledges the promised land and chosen people
at 10:93; 17:104; 44:32; the Torah describing it: '' . . . a place of prayer
for all nations,'' people struggling to behave like lights of God in the holiest
of manners. Not until this quantity of brightness intensifies will nations begin
to ''learn war no more.'' It's precisely this form, as Rabbi stated, of historic
Judaism suddenly awakened by Sharon's recent brutality, which will save
Israel from Zionism. Mushrooming numbers of Jews are, as we speak, sitting in jails,
receiving death threats and shunned; just as predicted by such well known
Jews as Martin Buber and Erich Fromm 40 years ago. I'm proud to acknowledge that,
proportionate to total religious population, in May 2002, it's these Jews who
are, more than anyone else, standing up for that very justice one would expect
inside a land of holiness. All of us, of any faith, who long for this version
of a Holy Land will not care by whose earthly names this promise is delivered.
But it won't be by Hamas, Arafat, OR Sharon.

-- shakur-abdel-Haleem

1-29-'02 We must stop singling out religious groups based on stereotypes

Since Sept. 11, concerned non-Muslims have called the Islamic Information Line
in Anchorage asking how to deal with these ''all Muslims are out to get us''
types. Take the Bob Lewis letter ''Why hasn't the Arab community spoken up to
condemn terrorism?'' (Jan. 22), implying, inaccurately, that no Muslims, local
to international, have spoken out or condemned terrorism. I often remind callers
that when the ''Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion'' (a forged memo) began
it's similar publicity campaign, ''all the Jews are all out to get us,'' most
Jews were told to just ignore them. Most ''all out to get us'' types are just
imitating some well-known Mike Savage or 1930s Goebbel's-style hate peddler.
They are otherwise good people.

I think Quaker advice is how to best
think about them: ''Isn't it more fruitful to put our efforts into finding the
light of God inside all people?'' All three scriptures remind us that ''light
overcomes darkness.'' Our holy book says the creator made us all different on
purpose, ''in order to know one another.'' As history has demonstrated, whenever
we've practiced knowing one another, these were good times. But do we really
want to repeat those cruel times when it was fashionable to create false superiority
for one group by inventing and or emphasizing the inferiorities of that ''Other
Group''?

-- shakur-abdel-Haleem

Two Local Muslim's Letters To The Editor(vertically scan the headlines in red to get a quick sense of the each writer's preferred
"themes")
go to Anchorage Daily News Archives: click here